— .1 


E 513 




.5 
6th 


AN ADDRESS 


Copy 1 




ox THE OCCASION OF 


DEDICATING THE MONUMENT 


TO 


LADD AND WHITNEY, 


MEMBERS OF THE SIXTH REGIMENT, M. V. M., KILLED AT BALTIMORE, 


MARYLAND, APRIL 19, 1861. 


DELIVERED AT 


LOWELL, MASSACHUSETTS, JUNE 17, 1865. 


By JOHN A. ANDREW, 


GOVERNOR OF THE COMMOil WEALTH. 


BOSTON: 


WRIGHT & POTTER, STATE PRINTERS, No. 4 SPRING LANE. 


18 65. 





AN ADDRESS 



ON THE OCCASION OF 



DEDICATING THE MONUMENT 



LADD AND WHITNEY, 



MEMBERS OF THE SIXTH REGIMENT, M. V. M., KILLED AT BALTIMORE, 
MARYLAND, APRIL 19, 1861. 



DELIVERED AT 



LOWELL, MASSACHUSETTS, JUNE 17, 1865. 



By JOHN A. ANDREW, 

GOVERNOR OF THE COMMONWEALTH. 



'^ 



BOSTON: 

WRIGHT & POTTER, STATE PRINTERS, No. 4 SPRING LANE. 
18 6 6. 



^~^\-i 






ADDRESS. 



On the 18tli of February, 1861, Jefferson Davis, 
in the pride of his arrogant pretension, not yet 
tanght to believe that the Yankees would fight, 
encouraged in his insolence by the mild loyalty 
which then pervaded "Washington, ^ew York, and 
the great cities of the IS'orth, defied their manhood 
by the exclamation : " The day of compromise 
is past, and those who now resist us shall 
smell Southern gunpowder and feel Southern 
steel." On the 12th day of April, the day when 
the cannon of treason opened on Fort Sumter, 
the rebel Secretary of War shouted from the 
rebel capital at Montgomery: "The war has 
now commenced; within a month the Confederate 
flag will float over the dome of the Capitol at 
Washington, and in the month of May we will 
dictate terms of peace in Independence Hall, in 
Philadelphia." And the "Eichmond Whig," reiter- 
ating this threat, recorded in its conservative col- 
umns the testimony, that " from the mountain tops 
and valleys to the shores of the sea, there is one 
wild shout of firm resolve to capture Washington 
City at all and every human effort." 



Before Mr. Buchanan had left the White House, 
the enemies of our government had ah-eady seized 
and appropriated more than thirty miUions of dol- 
lars of public proj)erty of the Union, which, before 
the Union struck a blow in return, had swelled to 
forty millions of dollars by the seizure of Gosport 
navy yard and the arsenal at Harper's Ferry. By 
the seizure of the mint at Kew Orleans; by the 
seizure of the arsenal, at Little Rock — accomplished 
by the strong' hand, notwithstanding Arkansas had 
refused to secede from the Union; by the dishonest 
and treacherous transfers made by Secretary Floyd 
of 115,000 stand of improved rifles and muskets 
from Springfield armory and "Watervliet arsenal to 
the different arsenals at the South; by the seizure 
of the arsenal at Mount Yernon, Alabama; by the 
military capture of Fort Moultrie and Castle 
Pinckney, of Fort Pulaski and Fort Morgan, of 
the forts near JS'ew Orleans, and of at least three 
different revenue cutters belonging to the revenue 
service of the Union; by the capture of the navy 
yard and the defences of Pensacola; by taking 
possession of the posts, the fortifications and 
munitions pertaining to the department of Texas, 
through the treason of General Twiggs ; by filing 
on the " Star of the "West " more than ninety days 
j^rior to the assault on Sumter; and by the induction 
of Jefferson Da^ds at Montgomery two weeks before 
the inauguration of President Lincoln; by all these 



the secessionists had signahzed, with proofs man- 
ifold and unequivocal, their determination to break 
down the government and fulfil the threats of 
Da\ds and of the " Eichmond Whig," to bully the 
^N'orth into abject submission to the wildest demands 
of rampant Slavery, or else to light the torch of 
desolating war. 

The earliest, manifest, overt act of war, com- 
mitted in pursuance of the treasonable conspiracy 
of which the adoption by South Carolina of the 
"ordinance of secession" was the formal begin- 
ning, was perhaps the firing on the " Star of the 
West," on the 9th day of January, 1861. The 
passage of the ordinance by South Carolina was 
on the 20th day of December, 1860. But the 
beginning of the war of the rebellion is usually 
dated from the 12th day of April, 1861, that being 
the day when, after long and uninterrupted prepa- 
ration, the batteries of the rebels opened upon Fort 
Sumter. 

On the 15th day of April the President of the 
United States called upon this Commonwealth for 
two regiments of militia, and on the next day the 
call was enlarged to a requisition for a brigade of 
four regiments, which was assigned to the command 
of Brigadier-General Benjamin F. Butler, in whose 
stead, after that ofiicer became a Major-General of 
volunteers, was detailed Brigadier-General Ebene- 
zer W. Peh-ce. On the 17th, the Sixth Regiment 



6 

of Massachusetts Yolunteer Militia, commanded by 
Col. Edward F. Jones, marched for "Washington by 
railroad, and two others, the Third, (Col. D. "W. 
Wardrop,) and Fourth, (Col. A. B. Packard,) 
moved b}^ sea. On the 18th the Eighth Hegmient 
marched under Col. Munroe; on the 20th, the Third 
Battalion of Rifles under Major (now Major-Gren- 
eral) Devens; and the Fifth Infantry, (Col. Law- 
rence,) and Cook's Battery of Light Artillery on the 
early morning of the 21st. Capt. Dodd's company 
of rifles, as a reinforcement to Devens' Battalion, 
marched May 1st. Thus rapidly and efficiently was 
the call of the government responded to by the 
militia of Massachusetts, and the capital of the 
nation and Fortress Monroe, which was of far 
greater military value than Washington, were 
rescued from muninent danger, at a period when the 
consequences of ages were crowded upon the 
efforts of an hour. 

The events which the transactions of this day, 
and this Monmuental Shaft are intended to com- 
memorate, are those which on the 19th of April, 
1861, the anniversary of the battle of Lexington, 
signalized the march of the Sixth Regiment of the 
Massachusetts Volunteer Militia through the City of 
Baltimore, on its Avay to the rescue of the iSTational 
Capital. By the memory of those events, preserved 
by historical tradition after this column shall have 
dissolved to dust, the men of the Sixth Kegiment 



will be forever associated Tit^ith the heroism of the 
Commonwealth, — with the earlier and the later 
glories of her more fortunate patriotism. 

The regiment as it was organized for active duty, 
contamed four companies from the City of Lowell, 
viz.: — Companies A, C, T> and H, commanded 
respectively by Captains George M. Dickerman, 
Albert S. FoUansbee, James "W. Hart and John F. 
Noyes ; one from Groton, Company B, commanded 
by Capt. Eusebius S. Clark j one from Acton, Com- 
pany E, commanded by Capt. Daniel Tuttle; two 
from Lawi'cnce, Companies F and I, commanded by 
Captains Benjamin F. Chadboume and John Pick- 
ering; one attached from Boston, Company K, 
commanded by Capt. "Walter S. Sampson; one from 
Stoneham, Company L, commanded by Capt. John 
H. Dike; one attached from Worcester, com- 
manded by Capt. Harrison W. Pratt. 

Its field officers were Col. Edward F. Jones of 
Pepperell, Lieut. Col. Benj. F. Watson of Law- 
rence, Major Josiah A. Sawtell of Lowell; and its 
commissioned stafi" were, Adjutant Alpha B. Farr, 
of Lowell, Quartermaster James Munroe, of Cam- 
bridge, Paymaster Pufus L. Plaisted, of Lowell, 
Surgeon ]N"orman Smith, of Groton, and Chaplain 
Charles Babbidge, of Pepperell. 

The regiment reached the City of Baltimore, in 
the State of Maryland, at noon on the 19th of 
April. Seven of its companies passed unmolested 



8 

from the railroad station at which it had arrived 
from Philadelphia, to the station from which it was 
to proceed to "Washington. The progress of the 
cars that contained the fonr remaining companies, — 
Companies C, D, I, and L, — was checked near the 
bridge over a sluice-way in Pratt Street, by obstruc- 
tions thro^vn upon the track, separating them from 
the main body of the regiment. Thus delayed, 
these companies dismomited from the cars, and 
began an orderly march along the liighway, which 
was presently interrupted by a shower of missiles 
thrown by the hands of a mob surging around them. 
Then came a scattering discharge of fire-arms from 
upj)er windows of houses on the street, as well as 
from among the mob on the pavement ; and four 
soldiers fell dead or mortally wounded. The fire 
of the rebels was at last returned by the troops by 
order of their officers, and the combat became 
general. The little column, hardly tAVO hundred 
strong, steadily pressed its way forward through 
the mob, and rejomed the main body, but with a 
loss of more than thirty wounded, in addition to the 
four killed. 

That evening, the Sixth Regiment entered the 
City of Washington, and was quartered in the 
Senate Chamber of the Capitol, — the herald of 
those mighty hosts which since have gathered to 
defend it. 



The treasonable menaces, the Ordmances of Se- 
cession, the acts of violence and incipient war, 
which followed the choice of Presidential Electors 
in 1860, and cnlminated into flagrant rebellion upon 
the accession of Abraham Lincoln to the Presi- 
dency, had attracted the anxious observation of 
mankind. DS^ever in the history of civilization had 
interests so manifold, so transcendent, been involved 
or threatened by the internal disputes of any nation 
or people. The mdustry of thirty millions of 
human beings, bond and free, the j)eace, happi- 
ness and welfare of every household of our conti- 
nental Republic, the business of the busiest and 
richest people under the sun, the strength of 
Republican Grovernment, the validity of Democratic 
ideas expressed in civil institutions, the success of 
Liberty, seemed trembling in the balance, where, 
poised against each other, were the struggling hope 
of continued peace, and the dismal presage of civil 
war. With the fortunes of the American Union 
were involved, by reason of the intimate com- 
plexity of all human relations in the social and 
political organization of modern times, the pros- 
perity, if not the fate, of many nations. The peo- 
ple of Massachusetts numbered about a million and 
a quarter of the population of the Union. From 
the earliest settlement of the country, they had 
been distinguished in two different, if not opposite 
ways, which supei-ficial men are apt to think not 



10 

consistent with each other. I mean in the direc- 
tion of Industry, and in the du^ection of Ideas. 
Given to much toil, they vakied gain as an instru- 
ment of comfort, progress and human development. 
Devoted to ideas, they worshipped Almighty God 
in a spirit of reverence, which recognized among 
the sublime truths of his revelation, the immortal 
nature conferred on the humblest as well as on the 
loftiest of manldnd, and they perceived that the 
glory of the civil State, as well as the Justice of 
Heaven, demanded the maintenance and security 
of the inalienable rights of men. 

In view of the part that people and their fathers 
had borne, in establishing the original character of 
American institutions, in securing American Inde- 
pendence, in founding the !N^ational Government, 
in creating and directing the great currents of 
opinion; in view of all the interests and responsi- 
bilities' which pertained to them, their duty and 
necessity of intelligent and independent judgment, 
and of fearless action; the occasion impressed itself 
upon the people of Massachusetts, stirred heart 
and conscience, fired every disinterested emotion, 
stimulated every heroic purpose, and fomid them 
ready, when the hour struck, to march once more 
in the cause of liberty and the rights of manMnd, 
patient to follow, and prepared to lead. 

Convinced, if I had doubted it before, by events 
and conversations of which I was personally a wit- 



11 

ness at Washington, in the month of December, 
1860, of the certain coming of the war which ensued, 
there seemed but two causes of anxiety, with which 
one needed be disturbed, who beheved m the care of 
Providence, the safety and the happiness found in 
the ways of duty, even though rugged and severe. 
The first ground of apprehension was, that the 
bolt might fall before the inauguration of President 
Lincoln should place the symbols of power into 
his faithful hands. The second gi'ound of appre- 
hension was, that it might fall upon us, finding no 
competent body prepared with approj)riate organi- 
zation, and military array, adequate to maintain the 
fii-st shoct of arms, and to hold the keys of power 
and the points of strategy, (whose loss might 
become fatal to the cause,) while the great body of 
the people, for the first time truly conscious of the 
exigency, could be rallied for resistance. 

The General Court and the Volunteer Mititia of 
Massachusetts, promptly cooperated in the needful 
work of preparation. And when the electric sum- 
mons of the 15th of April came to our citizen 
soldiers, citing them to the field, a brigade was 
ready to march, almost like veterans from their 
garrison ; and even the very exigency of an inter- 
ruption of the means of transportation through 
Maryland, contemplated in the month of January 
before, was seasonably met, according to the sug- 
gestion at that time made by Lieut.-General Scott, 



12 

by providing for the transit of troops by water 
carriage down the Susquehanna, and around to 
Annapohs, within one day's forced march, of 
Washington. 

The tragedy, the triumph, the glory of these four 
intervening years, the terrible and the consoling 
experiences they have w^rought, are too near to us 
in time, and then' scenes and emotions are in too 
vi\id and distracting contact yet, for their portrayal 
by pencil, tongue or pen. But removed from their 
immediate presence, the poetic sense will hereafter 
perceive them in their more just proportions. It is 
not the photograph, with its rigid severity of out- 
line and superficial accuracy, but the work of 
imaginative art which produces in truest reality 
the forms of beauty illmninated by the inspiring 
soul. 

It is not for me to attempt to separate the be^vil- 
derin^ masses of transactions and emotions through 
which we have lived, nor to rise above the influ- 
ences of those recent events which at present con- 
trol alike the imagination and the reason. But 
while I confess the impossibility of "executing such 
a task in any manner becoming the occasion, I may 
testify to the impressions stamped forever on our 
memories and on our hearts by that great week in 
April, when Massachusetts rose up at the sound of 
the cannonade of Sumter, and her militia brigade 
springing to their arms appeared on Boston Com- 



13 

mon. It redeemed the meanness and the weariness 
of many a prosaic hfe. It was a revelation of a pro- 
found sentiment, of manly faith, of glorious fidelity 
and of a love stronger than death. Those wore 
days of which none other in the history of the war 
became the j)arallel. And when on the evening of 
the anniversary of the battle oY Lexington, there 
came the news along the wires that the Sixth Regi- 
ment had been cutting its way through the streets 
of Baltimore, whose jDavements were reddened 
with the blood of Middlesex, it seemed as if there 
descended into our hearts a mysterious strength and 
into our mmds a supernal illumination. In many 
trjnng experiences of the war we have watched 
by starlight as well as sunlight the doubtful 
fortunes of our arms. But never has the news of 
\dctory, decisive and grand, — not even that of 
Gettysburg, on which hung issues more tremen- 
dous than ever depended on the fortunes of a single 
battle-field, — so lifted us above oiu'selves, so trans- 
formed our earthly weakness into heavenly might, 
by a glorious transfiguration. The citizens of yes- 
terday were to-day the heroes whom history would 
never forget; and the fallen brave had put on the 
croA\m of martyrdom, more worthy than a hundred 
mortal diadems. Their blood alone was precious 
enough to wipe out the long arrears of shame. 
The great and necessary struggle was begun, 
■without which we were a disgraced, a doomed, a 



14 

ruined people. "We had reached the partmg of the 
ways ; and we had not hesitated to choose the right 
one. Oh ! it is terrible, beyond expression terrible, 
to feel that only war, with all its griefs and pains 
and crunes, will save a people ; but how infinitely 
greater than the dread and the dismay with which 
we thought of war, was the Aope of that salvation. 

It was on the first day of May that Massachusetts 
received back to her soil the remains of these, her 
children, over whom we rear this momunent. 

One of the dead still sleeps at Baltunore. The 
mangled bodies of the other three, transported 
hither under charge of one of their fellow-soldiers, 
reached the State capital just before sunset, where 
they were received by the Governor of the Com- 
monwealth, and were escorted through streets 
draped in emblems of mourning and lined by thou- 
sands of citizens with uncovered heads and moist- 
ened eyes, to the " Yassal tomb " beneath the 
ancient " King's Chapel." On the way they were 
borne past the State House over the same ground 
where twelve days before they had stood to 
receive the flag which they swore to defend, and 
which they had died defending. 

Of these three martyi's, the name of but one was 
known — that of Su]\rN:ER Henry ^N^eediiam, of 
Lawrence. The rolls of the regiment were cut oif 
with its baggage, in the struggle at Baltimore. 
But had not this accident occurred, they might 



15 

have failed to a£ford means of identifying the re- 
mains; for in the haste of the original assembling 
and movuig of the regiment they had escaped 
careful revision. Some men had discarded the 
implements and clothing of peace, and fallen mto 
the ranks, on its march across the city, the very 
hour of its departure. In those early days, when 
the nation was wavering between life and death, we 
did not waste time on forms. "We were asked to 
send two regiments of troops as soon as we could. 
We did send five regiments, and more, sooner than 
the country had believed was possible to any State; 
but in accomplishing that, we neglected formali- 
ties which would have been mdispensible under an 
exigency less tremendous. 

Therefore it was, that two of the three corpses, — 
the same two wliich have mouldered into these 
ashes, in the presence of which we stand — ^lay 
before us that May evening, without a name. 
Later in the night, imder the direction of officers of 
the Head-quarters' staff of Massachusetts, and in the 
presence of the Mayors of the cities of Lawrence 
and of Lowell, these bodies were identified, and the 
names of Luthee Ceawpoed Ladd and Addisoi^ 
Otis "Whitxey, two young mechanics, both of 
Lowell, were added to that of iN'eedham. And, 
completing the four, is the name of Chaeles A. 
Tayloe, whose residence and family even now 
remain unkno^vn. 



16 

To complete the historical record of the humble 
men who thus, by a fortunate and glorious death 
have made their names imperishable, let us re\dew 
the brief stories of thek lives. They are quickly 
told. They are simple in incident; and they are 
characteristic of ^ew England. 

Little is kno^vn of Taylor, except that his trade 
was that of a decorative painter. The most careful 
inqmi-ies of his officers have failed to discover his 
residence or liis origin. On the evening of April 
16th he presented himself at Boston, in the hall 
where the regiment was quartered, and was enrolled 
as a volunteer. He appeared to be about twenty- 
five years of age. His hair was light; his eyes 
blue. After he fell on the pavement at Baltimore 
on the afternoon of April 19th, his brutal murderers 
beat him with clubs until life was extinct. 

Needham was born March 2d, 1828, at Bethel, a 
little town lying under the shadow of the White 
Mountains, on the banks of the Androscoggin 
River, in the County of Oxford, in the State of 
Maine. About 1850 he came to Lawrence, in 
Massachusetts, and engaged in his trade there, as a 
plasterer. After he fell mortally wounded at Balti- 
more, he Avas removed to the Infirmary, where 
he lingered until April 27th, when he died. His 
remams lie at Lawrence, where his wife and child 
reside. 



17 

Luther Crawford (son of John and Fanny) Ladd 
was born at Alexandria, near the Merrunack River, 
in the County of Grafton, in the State of N"ew 
Hampshire — where his parents still reside — on the 
22d day of December, 1843, being the anniversary 
of the landing of the Pilgrims. 

Addison Otis (son of John F. and Jane B.) 
"Wniitney was borh October 30th, 1839, at Waldo, 
in the comity of the same name, which borders on 
the Penobscot River, near where it joins the sea, 
in the State of Maine. Both died unmarried. 

Tliese brief lives offer no incidents that are 
not common to most of the ingenuous young men 
of 'Ne^Y England. Born of honest parentage, 
the 3^outh of both Ladd and "Wliitney was passed 
by the side of the great rivers, and the sea, 
and the mountains of ISTew England, and was 
nurtured in correct principles and fair ambition, 
by the teaching of free schools, until, arrived 
at manhood, and attracted by the opportunities 
of the great mechanical establishments of the 
eastern counties of Massachusetts, they came 
to Lowell, and were employed, the first in a 
machine shop, the second in the spinning-room 
of one of its manufactories. Their companions in 
toil and in social life testify to their exemplary 
habits, their amiable disposition, and their laudable 
industry. And thus they were engaged, constant 
in work, hopeful of long life, and confident of the 



18 

success which is everywhere in ^ew England the 
fruit of free and honest labor, when the sudden 
summons reached them to take up arms for their 
country. They never faltered for one moment in 
simple-hearted patriotism, and loyal obedience. 
At Lowell, on the 15th day of April, they dropped 
the garb of the artisan, and assumed that of the 
citizen-soldier. Four days afterwards at Balti- 
more, their mortal bodies, bruised and lifeless, 
lay on the bloody stones of Pratt Street, the 
victims of the brutal mob. 

Both "Wliitney and Ladd were young, and moved 
by a dauntless enthusiasm. "Whitney was but 
twenty-one years of age, and Ladd was only in 
his eighteenth year. 

"Whitney joined the Lowell City Guards (Co. D, 
of the Sixth Kegiment,) in the summer of 1860. 
He attended muster with the regiment that year, 
and was discharged early in the winter of 1861, 
because he was learning a trade, and could ill afford 
the time and expense of membership. On the call 
of the Governor on the regimental commanders, in 
March, 1861, to ascertain how many men in their 
commands would be ready for active service in case 
they should be needed, Whitney promptly came 
forward, and signified his willingness to obey the 
summons. He signed the rolls of the company 
with the understanding that if it should not be 
wanted he should be discharged. On the evening 



19 

of April 15th, when the order came for the regi- 
ment to get ready to leave the following day, he 
was among the first to put on his uniform. In 
company with a comrade, he left the armory about 
two o'clock' during the night of the 16th, for the 
purpose of procuring his photograph in the early 
morning, and he w^as at his company post promptly 
at the time appointed. 

In passing through Baltimore he was on the left 
of the first section, and while marching through 
Pratt Street, near the bridge, w^as seen to fall. 
Some of his comrades, thinking he had stumbled, 
tried to assist him, but finding he was dead, they 
left him where he fell. A bullet had pierced his 
right breast, passing down the body, causing instant 
death. The shot was undoubtedly fired from the 
upper window of a house. The coat which he wore 
was found stripped of every' button, cut ofi" by the 
mob. The place in the coat where the bullet 
entered is plainly visible, saturated with his blood. 

The precise manner of the death of Ladd is 
known by the bullet-holes, of which there are 
several, through the coat and the overcoat he wore, 
and by their gory stains. He is reported to have 
cultivated a strong taste for historical reading, and 
from his earliest boyhood to have entered with 
ardor into the study of our national affairs. He 
enlisted in the City Guards, at Lowell, three 
months before his death, on the occasion of the 



20 

appearance of the General Order of that year from 
the Commonwealth Head-quarters, already alluded 
to, and known as Order l^o. 4; and he expressed 
his desu-e to jom that company most likely to be 
called to active duty. By his youth he was legally 
exempt from military service ; and his friends would 
have dissuaded hmi at last from assuming its hard- 
ships and perils. But he met their persuasions 
by an appeal to the flag of his country whose 
fortunes he declared that he would surely follow. 
And when the fatal bullets had smitten him and he 
lay struggling with death, of a sudden the vision of 
his country's flag seemed to flash before him, as a 
momentary glory and delight, and exclaiming aloud, 
with his dying voice, " All hail to the Stripes and 
Stars ! " the soldier-boy ended his brief campaign. 
The public opinion that permitted this tragedy 
derives its interpretation from public documents 
and ofiicial action which leave no doubt of the 
value of the Massachusetts Militia to the Union 
cause, no doubt of the danger their service 
averted, no doubt of the urgent necessity of that 
very march through Baltimore, no doubt that it 
was the hinge on which turned the ultimate fate of 
Maryland, and perhaps of the Union. Our Militia 
were ready not a day too soon, nor were they an 
hour too late. The people of Baltimore, so tele- 
graphed the Mayor, to myself, on the 20th of 
April, regarded the passage of armed troops of 



21 

another State through then- streets, as an invasion 
of their soil, and could not be restrained. The 
Governor of Maryland and the Mayor of Baltimore 
represented to President Lincoln that the people 
were exasperated to the highest degree by the pres- 
ence of the troops, and that it was not possible for 
more soldiers to pass through Baltimore. They 
remonstrated against the transit of more soldiers, 
and they required that the troops already in the 
State be sent back to its borders. In reply to 
the Mayor of Baltimore the Governor of Massa- 
chusetts telegraphed: " I am overwhelmed with sur- 
prise that a peaceful march of American citizens 
over the highway to the defence of our common 
capital should be deemed aggressive to Balti- 
moreans. Through ^ew York their march was. 
triumphal." 

The loyal people of the Union shared this sur- 
prise, and exhibited it through the public press, in 
public meetings, in cordial response to the Presiden- 
tial proclamation, and by promptly raising troojDS 
for three months' service. The affair of the 19th 
of April was observed throughout the country 
with inexpressible emotion. The patience and 
valor of the Sixth Regunent excited the emulation 
of their comrades everywhere. By the 11th of 
May, the forces under General Butler, from differ- 
ent States, within what was then termed the mili- 
tary department of Annapolis, enabled hun to 



22 

occupy with a cletacliinent of his command, Federal 
Hill, in the corporate limits of Baltimore, for the 
purpose, among other tilings, of enforcing respect 
and obedience to the laws of the United States. 
And on that day, the Governor of Maryland issued 
his Proclamation for four regiments of the IMary- 
land Militia to serve as three months' volunteers, 
either within the limits of Maryland or for the 
defence of the Capital of the United States, subject 
to the orders of the Commander-in-Chief of the 
Army. 

The effort to prevent the transit of the loyal vol- 
unteers soon terminated; but the same temper of 
mind which excited the attack on the Sixth Regi- 
ment, and would have forbidden to the nation the 
.movement of troops for its own necessary pro- 
tection, over highways common to all the peo23le, 
had possession for the time of the Legislature at 
Annapolis. 

On May Ittth, 1861, the General Assembly of 
Maryland passed Resolves declaring that — 

" the war now waged by the goyernment of the United States upon 
the people of the Confederated States is unconstitutional in its origin, 
repugnant to civilization and sound policy, subversive of the free 
principles upon which the Federal Union was founded, and certain 
to result in the hopeless and bloody overthrow of our existing 
institutions." 

That— 

" the people of Maryland * * * sympathize deeply with their 
Southern brethren in their noble and manly determination to uphold 
and defend the great American principle of self-government." 



23 

That— 

"the State of Maryland * * * registers her solemn protest 
against the Avar which the Federal government has declared upon 
the Confederate States of the South, and our sister and neighbor, 
Virginia, and announces her resolute determination to have no part 
or lot, directly or indirectly, in its prosecution." 

That— 

" the Senators and Delegates of Maryland do fervently beseech and 
implore the President of the United States, * * in the name of 
God and humanity, to cease this unholy and most wi-etched and 
unprofitable strife." 

That— 

" the State of Maryland desires the peaceful and immediate recog- 
nition of the independence of the Confederate States, and hereby 
gives her cordial consent thereunto." 

On June 22cl, 1861, the same Assembly passed 
Kesolves "earnestly desiring and requesting" its 
Senators in Congress "to urge and vote for an 
immediate recognition of the mdependence of the 
Goyermnent of the Confederate States of Ame- 
rica," declaring, also, " that the right of separation 
from the Federal Union is a rio^ht neither arismo: 
under nor prohibited by the Constitution, but a 
sovereign right, independent of the Constitution, 
to be exercised by the several States uj^on their 
own responsibility;" and "in favor of the re- 
cognition of the Southern Confederacy and an 
acknowledgment of its government." 

But meanwhile the struggle between secession 
and the Union had been going on among the j^eoiDle. 
Time for reflection, oiDportunity for debate, had 



24 

been gained. By vigorous national measures the 
tide of evil had been stayed; and Maryland, which 
might like other States have been hurled into dis- 
union by precipitate legislation, had been saved. 

The next legislature earnestly began to retrieve 
the past. In December, 1861, by an order of the 
House of Delegates of the General Assembly, 
its Committee on the Militia was instructed 
"to confer with the Governor of Massachusetts 
and learn the condition of the widows and 
orphans, or any dependents of those patriots 
who were so brutally murdered in the riot of the 
19th of April." The Chairman of the Committee, 
John Y. L. Findlay, Esq., of the Baltimore 43ar, 
in his communication to the Governor, reciting 
that " the loyal people of Maryland, and especially 
of the city of Baltimore, after long suffering, are 
at length able through a Union Legislature to put 
themselves in a proper relation to the Government 
and the country," stated that "in effecting the 
latter, they feel their first duty is to Massachusetts. 
They are anxious to wipe out the foul blot of the 
Baltimore riot as soon as it can be wiped out, and 
as soon as possible." 

In his reply to this communication the Governor 
informed Mr. Findlay that he had addressed the 
Mayors of Lawi^ence and Lowell on the subject of 
his inquiries, and added — "The past cannot be 
forgotten, but it can and will be forgiven; and in 



25 

the good Providence of God I believe that the day 
is not distant when the blood that was shed at 
Baltimore by those martyrs to a cause as holy as 
any for which sword was ever drawn, shall be 
known to have cemented in an eternal union of 
sympathy, affection, and nationality, the sister 
States of Maryland and Massachusetts." 

Upon the receipt from the Mayors, of the infor- 
mation desired, it was promptly communicated to 
the Maryland Committee. 

On the 5th of March, 1862, an Act was passed by 
the General Assembly of Maryland, by which after 
a preamble setting forth that "whereas the Sixth 
Kegiment of Massachusetts Volunteers on their 
way to defend the National Capital were brutally 
attacked by a mob in the streets of Baltunore on 
the 19th of April, 1861," and "the State of Mary- 
land is anxious to do something to efface that stain 
from her hitherto untarnished honor," the sum of 
seven thousand dollars was appropriated and placed 
at the disposal of the Governor of Massachusetts to 
be disbursed by him for the relief of the families of 
those soldiers who were then killed or disabled' by 
their wounds. 

This magnanimous Act was suitably acloiowl- 
edged by the General Court of Massachusetts, in 
Kesolves approved on April 30th, and transmitted 
to the Governor of Maryland, and by him laid 
before the General Assembly of that State. 



26 

These Resolves declared that "the people of Massa- 
chusetts will welcome with sincere and cordial satis- 
faction this evidence of the generous sympathy of 
the people of Maryland, which will tend to restore 
and strengthen that Idnd and fraternal feeling 
which should ever exist between the citizens of the 
different States of the Union." 

The fund thus appropriated was distributed 
under the dh^ection of the Governor, to the sur- 
viving families of l^eedliam, Ladd and "Whitney, 
and to seventeen of the woimded, by an informal 
commission, composed of Messrs. John JN'esmith, 
the Lieutenant-Governor, and James M. Shute and 
Gerry W. Cochrane, members of the Executive 
Council, whose discriminating and benevolent care 
deserve our grateful recognition. 

Maryland at last had attained a firm position 
against secession, and in general support of the 
JSTational Government. But the regeneration of 
the State was yet incomplete. The General As- 
sembly had in December, 1861, appointed a Com- 
mittee "to proceed forthwith to Washington and 
request an interview with Major-General McClellan 
and solicit the adoption of some plan to prevent the 
admission of fugitive slaves within the lines of the 
army." 

In March, 1862, they had "seen with concern, 
certain indications at the seat of the general gov- 
ernment of an interference with the institution of 



27 

slavery in the slaveliolding States," and bore solemn 
testimony against "a policy so unwise and mis- 
cliieyons." 

During that session, they made formal appeal to 
the people of the l^orthern States " to discontinue 
by every means in their power all attempts to revive 
the agitation of slavery." 

They called upon the Korth "to rebuke in an 
unmistakable manner those of their Eepresenta- 
tives in Congress who are wasting their time in 
devising schemes for the abolition of slavery in the 
rebellious States." 

And they announced that they "witness with 
great regret the efforts which are now making 
for the abolition of slavery in the District of 
Columbia." 

But Maryland was not singular in her reluctance. 
As yet the pohcy of the Nation was undefined. 
Nor did it reach the dignity of positive justice, 
clearly pronounced, until by the great Proclamation 
of Liberty, the Government- became anchored to an 
immortal thought, and decreed Emancipation. By 
that act the President ascended a height more lofty 
than Federal Hill. He rose to the serene heights 
of Zion, received light and knowledge and power 
from an Eternal Source, fixed by a word the moral 
judgment of mankind in sympathy with our national 
cause, secured the verdict of histoiy and the prayers 



28 

of the good in every land, and humbly awaited " the 
gracious favor of Almighty God." 

Among the early results was the conversion 
of Maryland, despite her former legislative resolves, 
to a free Commonwealth. The Proclamation, pow- 
erless to emancipate the slaves in loyal States, had 
not unlocked the fetters of the Maryland slave. 
But by magnetic sympathy its idea had seized the 
minds of those who controlled the State, and a 
new constitution, of which the policy of Emanci- 
pation was the soul, became the consequence. 

The new constitution, framed by a convention 
which met the 27th of April, 1864, was introduced 
by a declaration of rights, the first article of which 
is in these significant words : — 

" We hold it to be self-evident that all men are created equally 
free ; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalien- 
able rights, among which are life, liberty, the enjoyment of the 
proceeds of their own labor, and the pursuit of liappiness." 

The tAventy-fourth article of the declaration 
reads : — 

" That hereafter, in this State, there shall be neither slavery nor 
involuntary servitude, except in punishment of crime whereof the 
party shall have been duly convicted ; and all persons held to ser- 
vice or labor as slaves are hereby declared free." 

And the thirty-sixth section of the third article 
of the constitution declares: — 

" The General Assembly shall pass no law, nor make any appro- 
priation to compensate the mastei's or claimants of slaves emanci- 
pated from servitude by the adoption of this constitution." 



29 

Submitted to the adjudication of the people, this 
charter was adopted by their vote, and became the 
constitution of Maryland, taking effect on the first 
day of N^oyember in the year 1864. 

'No hand of menace or threat of vengeance was 
ever raised by Massachusetts. She fulfilled her 
duty to the country by the march of her militia. 
She maintained her fidelit}'^ to the Union and to 
her sister Commonwealth. She awaited the time 
when History should become the vindicator of her 
conduct and avenge the blood of her children. 

N^or was the waiting vain. No sweeter triumph 
could have blessed her. The slaughter of her sons 
was disavowed and atoned for. The Government 
of the State called out four regiments to march 
shoulder to shoulder with our militia whose recall 
it had at first demanded. Secession was replaced 
by resolves and deeds in support of the war for 
the Union. Our own doctrines and principles con- 
cerning human liberty, so long denounced and 
despised, were embodied by the people of Mary- 
land in their fundamental law. And finally, in 
her ratification on February 3d, 1865, of the 
Amendment of the Constitution of the United 
States abolishing slavery throughout the Union, 
Maryland led by her example Massachusetts her- 
self. From the hour when your martyred brethren 
fell in Pratt Street, the redemption of Maryland — 
the salvation of one of the "Old Thirteen," 



30 

whose ancient fame is one with ours — and the 
emancipation of her bondmen, were secure. The 
result came hke the fulfihnent of prophecy. It 
was the working of the wisdom and the love of 
God overruling the devices of men. 

Friends and Fellow-citizens: — 

The limits of the occasion forbid me to invade 
the j^roper domain of history. I must not try to 
recount the story of the regiment during its three 
months of ser\ice, nor even allude to the incidents 
illustrating the careers of the organizations which 
composed our militia brigade. I seek not to divert 
your thoughts from the transactions around which 
centre the interests and emotions of this hour of 
commemoration. Ages shall elapse before eloquent 
tongues shall cease to discourse on the ever new 
and varying attractions of the heroic themes fur- 
nished by the deeds of all the soldiers of the Union. 
But this hour is sacred to the memories of the 19th 
of April, to the action and passion of that day in 
Baltimore, to the relation borne by the events of 
that day to those which surrounded and followed 
them, and to their significance in the grand drama 
of wliich they formed the introduction. 

Let this monument, raised to preserve the names 
of Ladd and Whitney, — the two young artisans of 
Lowell, who fell among the first martyrs of the 
great rebellion, — let this monument, now dedicated 



31 

to theii* memory, stand for a thousand generations ! 
It is another shaft added to the monumental col- 
umns of Middlesex. Henceforth shall the inhabi- 
tants of Lowell guard for Massachusetts, for 
patriotism, and for liberty, this sacred trust, as they 
of Acton, of Lexington, of Concord, protect the 
votive stones which commemorate the men of 
AprU, '75. 

Let it stand, as long as the Merrunac runs from 
the mountains to the sea; wliile this busy stream 
of hmnan life sweeps on by the banks of the river, 
bearing to eternity its freight of destiny and hope. 
It shall speak to yoiu- children, not of Death, but 
of Immortality. It shall stand here, a mute, expres- 
sive witness of the beauty and the dignity of 3^outh 
and manly prime consecrated in unselfish obedience 
to Duty. It shall testify that gratitude will re- 
member, and praise will wait on the hmublest, who, 
by the intrinsic greatness of their souls, or the 
worth of their ofierings, have risen to the sublmie 
peerage of Yutue. 



